On Tuesday, Tim Burton got the 2,788th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at a ceremony in Los Angeles.
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce honored the artist-filmmaker with a star for his work on films such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride, and Sleepy Hollow.
Monica Bellucci, Tim’s partner, attended the event, as did guest speakers Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton.
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Tim addressed the group, recalling how he used to go alone from Burbank to Hollywood as a child.
“When I first came here, I was so young that I thought these were gravestones,” he said, indicating to the stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “I realised John Wayne wasn’t buried under that or other people.”
Tim went on to say how excited he was that his star is located outside of Hollywood Toys & Costumes.
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“I used to come down here and visit the Larry Edmunds Bookshop and come here and when I found out it was here, I almost started crying because I’ve been coming here ever since I was a little child and the store hasn’t changed at all,” said the 66-year-old. “So, for me, it’s an honor not just to have a star, but to have it right here in front of this great shop, museum, toy shop, and everything… I used to spend my entire life here. “Thank you very much.”
In her remarks, Winona likened handing Tim the star as “sort of like pinning a medal on Mount Everest for being the tallest mountain”.
She also stated that the filmmaker of Beetlejuice has “a beautiful and unique understanding of the human heart”.
“Whether outcasts, oddballs, terrifying or humorous, he offers them depth, comedy, and always a sense of gallantry, as well as dignity. “His heroes are the very outcasts that he admires,” she said of her frequent collaborator. “Working with Tim is like being invited to explore his heart and imagination. It’s the ultimate cathedral, one of my most treasured and hallowed locations to visit, and I’ll be eternally grateful for the time I spent there.”
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Elsewhere, Michael described how astonished he was when Tim suggested he portray Batman in the 1989 blockbuster movie.
“He hands me a script and says, ‘Please read this and tell me what you think,'” he recalled. “This comes after Beetlejuice. After the performance. After that kind of movie. He tells the studio, ‘I want that person.’ I will never understand why anyone cared. The ruckus would have led you to believe we were being invaded. It was unbelievable. The journalists went bananas. But he persisted with me. And the courage it needed to stick by that decision will always be precious to me,” the actor added.
“What that (movie) spawned…there are a lot of people making a lot of money out there with their superhero movies because of his choice and his vision of what those movies could be, because he changed everything.”
Tim’s latest film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the sequel to his 1988 film Beetlejuice, arrives in theaters on Friday.
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